USTA League changes for 2021 - Plus flights are gone!

The USTA typically publishes the regulations for the upcoming year,  at least in draft form, in the Spring,  but with COVID-19 affecting things it ended up being late July this year.  While I recommend that you get/read the full doc, I'm sure many of you just want to know "What changed?".

For those of you in that camp, here is a summary.

First, the big change is plus flights appear to be gone.  As a reminder, these were flights at the top of each division (5.0 for 18 & Over and 4.5 for 40 & Over) that were designated 5.0+ and 4.5+ and allowed teams to roster and play 5.5 and 5.0 players respectively.  This was done to give the 5.5/5.0 players more playing opportunity as in many areas, there was not critical mass to have a 18 & Over 5.5/Open flight and/or 40 & Over 5.0 flight.  In order to have the plus players play against each other, they were required to play on court 1 (singles or doubles).

The problem is, while plus flights could work well, they introduced some issues.  The main one was that a team may not have a plus player on their roster, or not available for a match, and that led to throwing court 1 at times, which was just a waste of time for the plus player.  This was especially true when say a 4.5+ team without a 5.0 for a match would have a 4.0 playing up play a 5.0 in singles.  Even when 5.0s were rostered and available, they could play in singles or doubles so wouldn't always face each other, which could lead to uncompetitive matches even when a court wasn't being thrown.

Several sections had been lobbying for changes or getting rid of plus flights, and some had tried to impose restrictions saying players playing up couldn't play on court 1 in plus flights.  But now that is no longer an issue as plus flights are gone.

What happens to those plus players without a flight now?  The regulations do appear to allow for sections and areas to have an 18 & Over Open flight and 40 & Over 5.0 flight for these players, and even have playoffs through Sectionals, there just won't be a Nationals for those levels.

My view is this does remove the problems noted above, but may leave some players without a league to play in as not all areas will be able to have Open and 5.0 flights due to limited players at those levels.  If you are a 40+ 5.0, your only option may be playing against the youngsters in 18 & Over.

Second, there are some changes to appeal rules for senior players.  The past few years, those 60+ could appeal down a bump up if they'd been at the same level for 3 years, and those 65+ could auto-appeal down a bump up if they were not higher than the "clearly above" threshold.  Now, those 70+ have their own rule, they can just auto-appeal down whether bumped up or not, as long as they are not higher than the "clearly above" threshold.

This "clearly above" threshold probably needs some explanation.  Normally, appeal rules do allow for someone to appeal down if they are just over the bump threshold, typically something less than 0.1.  The clearly above threshold is higher than that, it varies by level but you can assume something like 0.2-0.3 over the threshold.

This means someone 70+ that is a 4.0 but has been struggling but stays a 4.0 can appeal down to 3.5 more easily than before.

I think this change probably makes sense, although it is probably pretty rare that a 70+ player has played and is struggling and doesn't get bumped down or is low enough to appeal under the normal rules.

Third, last year brought a 4-court format for 40 & Over at the National level and there was much consternation about it and how 2-2 ties would be broken.  It was discovered TennisLink was somewhat broken and there were undocumented rules for how ties were broken, and National finally clarified things after more than 30 ties occurred.

Now, that clarification is in the regulations.  They state that for Nationals, 40 & Over will be 4-courts and ties broken ultimately by the winner of court 1 doubles.  Of course they still list game winning percentage as a criteria which will always be 50% for both teams, so it is meaningless.  But at least they have something there to break the tie where last year they didn't.

Note, this clearly means the 4-court format is here for another year at least.  Lots of folks rallied against it but it is no surprise that National is sticking to their guns since it won't get a full test in 2020 with no Nationals and many areas perhaps not even holding their leagues.

That is it for the big changes.  There are a few other small ones of note, those being:

• There have been a few cases where teams showed up to playoffs without the minimum required players.  The regulations allow for waivers, language has now been added to presumably limit waivers being granted as "Waivers are only intended for extreme circumstances" now appears in the document.
• Miscellaneous changes to align with the removal of plus flights.

Not a lot of changes, but with an abbreviated season I wouldn't have expected many.

What do you think?